


Hippocles and Xanthos

by Cerberusia



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Ancient Greece, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-05
Updated: 2020-02-05
Packaged: 2021-02-26 10:58:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22575478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerberusia/pseuds/Cerberusia
Relationships: Jason Grace/Percy Jackson
Comments: 2
Kudos: 47
Collections: Chocolate Box - Round 5





	Hippocles and Xanthos

**Author's Note:**

  * For [salazarastark (niewanyin)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/niewanyin/gifts).

Perseus was born into the Myrrhinus deme. This was neither the greatest nor the least regarded in Attica, merely part of one of the many coastal trittryes into which any Athenian boy might be born. He'd been recognised by his mother's husband Cleotimes into his phratry like every respectable infant - even though everybody said Perseus was a _nothos_. Not that it hurt his prospects, as illegitimacy normally would - what man could fight being cuckolded by a god, or bring him to court for adultery?

And in any case, Perseus' mother - who was of good but undistinguished family, but so fair of face and manner that she was accorded the respect of a great matron anyway, and who was in any case more than respectable enough not to have her name bandied about in public - had soon returned to her parents' house with her child. Cleotimes had had the sense not to complain - he was known as a habitual drunkard of unpleasant and base nature. Perhaps he too credited the well-known rumours that Perseus' mother had known a god before their marriage, and that Perseus was not his natural son.

Jason had been born in the same archon-year as Perseus, and was deeply curious about him. His mother had married a man who had taken care of Perseus' education so that he was not much exposed to the vulgar stares of common folk, and Jason's family were not well enough acquainted with him for Jason to have caught more than a glimpse of Perseus as a child.

Which was why it was so thrilling to arrive at the gymnasium a little after noon, aryballos swinging from his wrist, only to be pulled aside into the mess by Alethesias and told that Perseus of Myrrhinus - _that_ Perseus - was already there, only just arrived himself.

And so he was. He was wrapped in his cloak in a gesture of enchanting modesty, and his locks of dark hair curled and hung down from his head like clusters of bluish-black grapes. When he disrobed to rub himself down with oil, about five men and boys leapt foward to take and fold his cloak. Their tug-of-war was barely even discreet, and for a moment Jason wondered whether they might all end up with a bit of it as a keepsake, and Perseus end up with no cloak.

"You're Jason, aren't you?" Perseus' eyes were sea-green and framed by thick, dark lashes.

"Jason of Kephisia," Jason confirmed, uncorking his own aryballos with studied nonchalance. He was widely known for his own fair looks - which had earned him the nickname 'Xanthos' - and had nothing to be self-conscious about when he shed his own cloak. A few more men were now in the doorways of the changing room to get a good look at them both.

"They say you're the son of Zeus," said Perseus. Not as if he were dubious or envious, just curious.

"And they say you're the son of Poseidon." And not just because he was, appropriately enough, a fine horseman, nicknamed 'Hippocles' - though with a rumoured lineage like that, they'd do well to give him command of a trireme one day. "I believe it," Jason added, and hoped his nerves weren't obvious and Perseus didn't think he was just flattering him.

"Funny, I was going to say the same of you." Perseus smiled a crooked smile at him, like they were co-conspirators. The oil made his smooth, strong body glow. Jason daren't look too long in case he caught on fire. "How about a race?"


End file.
